The Wild World of Sports

Here are some things we can take away from this weekends marathon and half marathon exploits.

Scott Sullivan and myself are faster than your average bear, and human for that matter. It was awesome.
Bloody nipples will NEVER be cool.
People poo themselves while running, seriously.
8000 people is a dam lot of people.
13.1 miles is a dam long way.
And it was super fun.

So, last week I was stuck down with some sort of illness that still remains undefined. I don't know what was going on but I had the worst soar throat ever, a minor fever, and I felt like I had just taken a ride inside a drier. Rad.
I laid on the couch a lot and called out of work on Thursday to do some more couch laying.
Then I drove south, picked up Ali in Boston where she had just slain the Child Life Specialist exam (results forthcoming) and further south we went to RI.
Friday saw some low key action, a serious 2 hours nap, and some awesome time with Scott and Abby and late arriver Hoshiah at the old Fez. Scott later informed that the Providence select have forfeited the Fez to college D-Bags in favor of higher ground on the West Side. This came as sad news to me. I think it was the hamburgers fault.
Anyway...
Saturday, I awoke in awful pain and we headed to the Urgent Care. they had no answers for me but gladly took a bunch of money. Lame. I got a perscription for some medicine and off we went to the wedding. My cousin Kim was getting married.
It was fun.
We ate dinner.
Then departed for the great green state once again, racing Scott Sullivan there the entire time. We made it to VT in under 4 hours. What?! Yeah, cruise control and all that.
Met Scott at the house and finally crashed out at 1:00 or so.

Early morning! We were up at 6:00 and walking towards downtown to go pick-up our race numbers and info. The great bagel hunt 2009 took place as just about everywhere was closed for Memorial Day and we were HUNGRY. We found some bagels and an americano at Brueggers and felt saved and satisfied. Scott and I hung around the finish not really sure how to prepare for such an event and my nervous motor mouth never stopped talking.
Scott was running the first leg of the race and he headed over to the GIANT mob of people waiting on Battery street. From later reports, we would come to find out that Scott didn't start moving for over a minute after the race had officially started. Not his fault, just no where to go. CRAZY.
Marathons are kind of like, all the fun of bike racing, and a great sense of community if none of the assholes where invited. There is very little ego, no equipment scoffing, no major crashes that threaten lives. In short, it was a lot of fun.

Scott had the honor of running the first leg, in THE RAIN. All together now, LAME. He would later tell everyone that he didn't mind it. And I believe him, because come to find out, he doesn't wear socks when he runs. This is strange to me. But I'm not his feet, so there is no need to worry.

In the end, Scott ran a PR (personal record) of 1:46:32 and I ran a PR (by default, because this was my first 1/2) of 1:42:32. We were 44th out of 110. Rad!

When that was over, we headed to a BBQ hosted by Will S. that I work with. Good food, good beer, and friendly faces all around. The saga didn't really begin until much later in the evening. But, more on that later. Keep your eye on Scott's blog.

And bike racing.
I like Scott's idea that I am hiding out in VT until you forget that I am fast. We'll see. Don't hold your breath too long. I have some things in the pipeline and have been getting some training advice from a friendly face in the New England racing scene.
It's thursday and my legs finally feel 80% back to normal. I think by the weekend I'll be 100%. Though, it's scheduled to rain for the next 6 months, so we'll see if I don't trade in this GT for a canoe.

Also, GT has a twitter page! You can check it out here: http://twitter.com/GTDirtCoalition

Over and out, out and about.

Aa